BSP goes with upper castes in hills

Dehradun, December 8
Though the Bahujan Samaj party has been primarily a party of the Dalits and minorities, a paradigm shift is being witnessed in the party’s strategy now, in view of the coming Assembly elections in Uttarakhand.

The BSP now is giving a substantial representation to politicians from higher castes by making them official party candidates, particularly in hill segments.

This can be gauged by the fact that the just released third list of 10 candidates for the Assembly elections have all the candidates belonging to upper castes.

With the BSP having no legislator at present from the 11 hill districts, the state unit leaders and election planners have now given tickets to candidates from upper castes, taking into various considerations.

First of all, this move will give the party mass acceptance among the voters from these castes as well as boost their candidates’ winning chances in the plain segments of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar too, where it has a strong base.

Secondly, the party think-tank realises that in the hilly regions the lower caste and minorities population is very less and candidates belonging to them could not draw substantial votes, unless they are is politically strong.

Mohammed Shahzad, party’s leader in the state Assembly, told The Tribune that this move should not be viewed keeping in mind the election prospect only, but should be taken alongside the party supremo Mayawati’s ideology of “Sarv Jan Hitay” wherein all the communities are equal for the party.

He cited last parliamentary elections, when from the Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat the party had given ticket to Rajiv Aggarwal and Dr Pramod Uniyal from Tehri Garhwal, both hailing from upper castes.

Notably, the party’s third list figures upper caste candidates: Hukum Singh Pokhriyal (Gangotri), Bijendra Prasad Nautiyal (Yamunotri), Dheer Singh Bisth (Rudraprayag), Rajendra Kutiyal(Pithoragarh), Gobind Ballabh Pandey (Lohaghat), Devki Nandan Suyal (Nainital), Nupur Gupta(Dehradun Cantonment), Ajay Sood (Raipur), Rajesh Pratap (Kitcha) and Gulshan Arora from Haridwar (rural).

“Mayawati-led BSP government in Uttar Pradesh has carried out development and the same will be replicated in Uttarakhand. We have given due representation to every caste in view of the merit of the candidate, surely we will be not only opening account but will also be winning at least 10 seats in the hills,” said state BSP chief Suraj Mal.

This move surely has upped the party’s prospects in the coming elections and certainly the “elephant” is on its way to climb the hills, it seems this time.